Storytellers
by melpomenewrites
Summary: The story of Shepard's life, turned into nighttime story many parents across different species tell their children.
1. Drell

Author's Note: Hello everyone! This originally appeared on the kink meme but don't worry or be disappointed depending on your taste because it is not at all porny. The requester asked for

_The story of Shepard's life, turned into nighttime story many parents across different species tell their children. Points if its really inaccurate, and the story changes depending on which culture is telling it. (Asari: Shepard is a diplomat, Turian: Shepard is an amazing general, uh. Salarians play up her intellect? Also, your choice to if Shep is long dead or not.)_

_OR._

_Shep and Garrus hanging out watching TV. When a children's show comes on that has a strangely familiar story line._

And once I've finish up the last three four chapters that I'm working we should have all of that. So- enjoy!

**Drell**

"What do you want to hear tonight?" He asked, touching their heads affectionately.

"We want to hear about Shepard!" Chimed the first.

"Yes, Shepard and the monsters!" Added the second.

"Again? But I just told you that one last night. There are other stories you know."

"But it's the best one, Papa."

"So it is. You've heard it so many times though, I bet you can tell it to me how it starts."

"Once upon a time!" The girls chorused.

"Yes that's right, once upon a time the goddess Arashu looked down from her heavens and saw that the world was unjust and that many beings were suffering. This troubled her so deeply that she decided to come down and right all the wrongs of the galaxy herself. She came down as a human baby and the night she was born the ground of the planet trembled and the sky was filled with strange lights. When her parents took her to be blessed by the elders of the village they could sense that she was no normal child and so they declared that she should be named Shepard because it was her destiny to shepherd all beings to truth and peace."

"And she was beautiful?"

"Yes, yes she grew to be beautiful with large black eyes just like you," He said, tapping his daughter on the nose, "And when she sang anyone who heard her song would stop whatever they were doing because the sound had the unearthly loveliness of the heavens from which Arashu had come. However, it was not Shepard's destiny to remain on such a small planet singing songs of peace."

"Because then the monsters came!" Interjected the younger daughter excitedly.

"Yes, yes," He laughed, "The monsters. I was just getting to that."


	2. Batarian

Gavrok, Martak and Uresh sat on a catwalk overlooking one of Omega's marketplaces, occasionally tossing a bit of trash down onto the crowd below, having been thrown out of the apartment by their mother.

"That's bullshit." Declared Uresh, squinting his four eyes suspiciously at his younger sister

"Naw, it's true I saw it in a vid," Martak insisted, "It was the Batarians who rescued Commander Shepard so that she could start being a hero and shit. She had been trapped by her evil aunt and uncle who wanted to keep her on their hick planet working as a moisture farmer. Then the Batarians came and killed everyone and took Shepard into space to begin her training."

"Why would they do that?" Asked Uresh

" 'Cuz she's a woman of destiny or whatever. She fucking had to bring balance to the galaxy." Martak said emphatically.

"Huh," Muttered Uresh, watching with evident pleasure as the cup he had thrown hit the side of an Asari's head, "Don't think she brought much balance to Omega."

"It's true though," Gavrok chimed in, "I saw that vid too. I head she was even born with four eyes."


	3. Krogan

The children of the female camp gathered around the fire, wrestling for the best place, closest to the old shaman's feet. None of them wanted to miss a word of the next portion of the story.

Finally the shaman took her seat and raised her wrinkled hands dramatically, the children all grew silent.

"Battlemaster Shepard's clan had been attacked by Batarians while she was off training in the mountains," The Shaman began, picking up from where she had left off the previous night, "When the Battlemaster returned and found her family dead she slew every Batarian in the village, tore their eyes from their sockets and trampled them underfoot. The human soldiers who came to investigate found Battlemaster Shepard sitting on a pile of Batarian corpses, her village in flames. They saw her might and begged her to join them but she said,

'You are weak, if you were worthy of me you would have been beside me as I ripped the eyes from these filthy Batarians' heads instead of cowering up in your spaceships. Give me one of your ships that I might seek out a clan and a foe becoming of my strength'

They did as she asked and she traveled from star to star and planet to planet. She ripped the plating off of Turians, pierced the soft skin of the Salarians with her bullets or her submachine gun and tore many Batarians limb from limb for what they had done to her people but it was all too easy for the Battlemaster. She could not find a fight worthy of her. Finally she landed on Tuchanka. She presented herself to the great Urdnot Wrex, unifier of the Krogans and said,

'Chief Urdnot, I have traveled the length and breadth of this galaxy but have not found a good battle anywhere among those aliens. I have heard that the Krogans might have valor so I challenge you to hand to hand combat.'

'Ha!' said the chief, 'You, a human female challenge me, Urdnot Wrex to combat? We will put you against the Thresher Maw that all of our young must face. If you are still alive in an hour then perhaps we may talk.'

Shepard threw down her gun,

'Very well Urdnot Wrex. But this task presents no challenge to me armed, so I will face the Maw with only my own two hands.'

Battlemaster Shepard departed and none of the clan expected to see anything of her again but when the hour had passed they came to the Maw's pit they found the Battlemaster coated in the blood of the Thresher Maw, its head ripped completely off of its body.

All the Krogans feel to their knees before her and Urdnot Wrex knelt before Shepard in supplication,

'I underestimated you, human. In you I have found a worthy battlemaster for my clan. Oh great Shepard, come and join us and together we will claim many worlds for clan Urdnot.'

Shepard nodded.

'Urdnot Wrex, your offer is pleasing to me. Let us go back to your camp that I may be made a brother to all Urdnots and we feast and drink until the sun rises.'

That was the night Shepard became Battlemaster Urdnot Shepard, leader of the Krogan armies."


	4. Rachni

The mother gathered her brood to her, singing them the song of the history of their people. The greens of the singing planet, the silver of the stars, the oily yellow of the betrayer, the reds of their death and the blue of the one who had forgiven them and granted them another chance to spread their song to the heavens.


	5. Quarian

Mother and daughter leaned over the ruined satellite, carefully removing wires, circuit boards, anything that could be useful to the fleet. It was tedious work, but the daughter loved it because her mother, usually too busy to depart from the realm of the everyday and practical would always tell fantastic stories of the heroes from the old days while they worked.

"Now the council was jealous of the Shepard vas Normandy," Her mother continued, "For the way the people loved her- and they were afraid that she would use her influence over them to gather all of the council races in an army to help us take back the homeworld. So, they tricked her into coming onto the Citadel and once she was there they took the Normandy from her."

"But Shepard vas Normandy was too clever for that," Giggled the girl.

"That's right," Said her mother smiling, "Far too clever. Her second in command, Tali vas Normandy, helped her dress up in an environmental suit like a Quarian so that they could more around the citadel without being recognized. In the guise of cleaning women they snuck into the office of the council to hack through their defenses and free the Normandy. But when Tali was halfway through the firewall a giant Krogan guard wandered into the room and glared at the two of them.

'Harumph,' He grumbled, 'I don't think I've seen the two of you around before. What are you doing with the councilor's computer?'

Shepard had to think of her feet and stall for time, fortunately she had the gift of words and cunning and was easily able to talk circles around the stupid Krogan.

'We are technicians,' She said, 'The councilor was visiting some, ah, questionable extranet sites and the whole system is overrun with viruses.'

'I hadn't heard anything about that.' Growled the Krogan

'Well of course not," Answered Shepard vas Normandy, "It's all quite embarrassing for him, you know. I'll bet he was hoping to keep it a secret. Probably best if you don't mention it to anyone.'

'Well it you are technicians where are your clearance cards?'

'Clearance cards?' She asked, feigning ignorance 'But the Asari at the desk said we had to leave them with her.'

'No, that's not how it works, you keep the clearance cards so that I know you have clearance.'

'But the Asari took them, you'll have to go get them from her. Don't worry about us, just lock us in while you go check at the front desk."

Of course by the time the bumbling Krogan burst back into the room to find it empty, with the window shattered Tali and Shepard were back on the Normandy and speeding towards the geth base."


	6. Asari

It was 3:00 am Mirelle hid under the covers with the name day present her older sister had given her. Nia had presented her with the beat-up paper back that morning with an air of mock seriousness.

"You're becoming a woman now Mirelle. You're embarking on a new stage in your life filled with new and strange feelings feelings you won't understand," She laughed, breaking through the serious facade, "And goddess knows I don't want you coming around bothering me with them. I've got exams to study for you know. Anyway, I want you to have this. It's been one of my most prized possessions and it's taught me everything I know, but your need it greater, dear sister. Take it."

Mirelle had surveyed the bent cover suspiciously. It read The Adventures of Shepard and Vakarian in a loopy script and had a rather luridly colored picture of a Turian and a human woman in what looked like an impractically skimpy suit of armor. She almost hadn't even opened it, assuming it was Nia's idea of a joke but decided to give it a look before she went to bed.

Six hours later she was nearly finished with the book and completely enraptured. True, she hadn't really understood what was going on during some of the bits about 'his throbbing manhood' and 'her yearning slit,' (she made a mental note to look up 'maidenhead,' 'turgid' and 'orgasm' at some point later) but that didn't keep her heart from pounding wildly at them, or indeed at the whole story of grand passion set against the background of a galactic war which was just reaching a climax on the heart of the Citadel. She turned the page and kept reading.

"He grabbed her wrist, his rough talons bruising her skin which was a soft and fair as a lily.

'I can't let you go in there Shepard, Saren is my duty and mine alone.'

'Do you think I've come so far to let you face him without me.' She said hotly, a flush blooming on her porcelain cheeks, 'Besides Saren is just as much a threat to humans as he is to Turians- he's a threat to life,' her voice softened, 'And love everywhere, for everyone. Look up there-' She said, gesturing at the battle raging above the at the domed glass ceiling of the citadel, 'Many good men and women will fight and die today to stop Saren, No man who loved me would try to stop me from fighting alongside them.'

He drew he into a passionate embrace, pulling her her soft, yielding mouth to his firm one. A shot hit the council tower, shaking the trees and bring down a shower of cherry blossoms onto their head.

Finally they pulled apart,

'Come if you insist Shepard," He said gruffly, "But know that if you die, I'll die with you.' "

Mirelle sighed happy. This was the best name day present ever.


	7. Hanar

A handful of people stood on the sidewalk and listened as the Hanar spoke, light dancing across its pink body.

"The ship broke apart into many little pieces and Shepard fell into the void of space." He intoned, "That one's spirit came away from the body. But, just as all was looking most hopeless the Enkindlers reached down and gathered that one's spirit in their hands for in their wisdom they saw that her time had not yet passed. For two years Shepard rested in the bosom of the Enkindlers and they shared much wisdom with her as they prepared a new vessel for her spirit."

A few more people stopped and Pelops glowed with happiness. He had found that he attracted many more listeners with this story than any other.


	8. Salarian

This was why Pelon hated coming back to see the family. It was supposed to be a quick visit, in, out, meet with the Dalatrass, back to Illium. But no, she was busy with some sort of other business and he was shunted off into a side room with all of his hatchling cousins. There must have been fifteen of them at least and they were all running around. This must be what the electron shell inside an atom is like, he mused bitterly keeping his back to the wall. He didn't stay unnoticed for long though, before he knew it the children had surrounded him, tugging on his clothes and begging him to play with him. Oh God, he though, they're going to devour me like a Rachni swarm and no one will hear my screams. Somehow he managed to convince them to listen to a story instead and so he found himself pulled onto the carpet, several of the children fighting for a place in his lap.

Surprisingly though once he started telling the story not only did they fail to devour him they actually sat still, listening intently, only occasionally bursting out with excited requests for more information. Palon relaxed; maybe this would be so bad after all.

"Yes Shepard was smart," He continued, "Almost as smart as a Salarian. She knew if she just threw herself against the Reapers she would gain nothing but death for her and her crew so she would have to find a way to out think them. She went to her second-in-command, Mordin Solus and together they gathered together all the best scientific minds in the galaxy on her space-faring laboratory, the Normandy. They traveled from planet to planet collecting and analyzing data, until one day they had a break through-"

"Pelon, the Dalatrass will see you now."

Palon looked from the messenger to his disappointed looking cousins.

"Can you tell her to wait," He said, "I'm in the middle of a story."


	9. Volus

"Take Commander Shepard as an example," Said Lar Orban, wagging a finger at his son.

"As if it wasn't bad enough to be born an earth-clan she was also drafted into the military where they expected her to traipse all over the galaxy fighting geth and collectors like some sort of FENRIS mech. But she had an eye for commerce, and used her military hardware to found a mining empire that spanned the Terminus Systems. In the end she simply bought out the collectors and re-purposed their ships and hardware to expand her mining operations. Within ten years she'd strip mined half the uninhabited planets in the system and retired to private island back on earth. Let that be a lesson to you." He said, nodding sagely, "You can make a profit anywhere as long have an eye for it."

Author's Note: Elcor, Geth, Turian and Human are all between 50% and 95% done so I'll be getting those up soon. Thank you for reading!


	10. Vorcha

A/N: How'd this end up so long? I wasn't even going to write about the Vorcha.

Chom looked down at his home. He knew that he would never see it again. He couldn't say he was sad to see it begin to receded away from him, but neither did he look forward reaching his destination.

The world where Chom was born was small, hot and overcrowded. When your species lives only twenty years there is precious little time for childhood- less still when you're unceremoniously thrown from the hovel you call home at six. But that was the way of the world. The new baby made Chom simply one mouth too many to feed. He wasn't heartbroken.

He learned the ropes of the street quickly- how to pick a pocket without catching anyone's attention, how to find the best crevices in which to sleep at night, how to kill another Vorcha with a bit of broken glass before he could kill you. Chom was not happy but neither was he unhappy. He lived as well as anyone he knew and had neither the time nor the inclination to give his existence any further thought. He might have lived out the rest of his allotted days like this, dying of old age in a gutter in ten or twelve years, perhaps earlier in a bar fight or a scuffle over food, had his hand not slipped.

His gang had dared him to sneak a pistol off a Blood Pack recruiter in the bar. It wasn't the sort of thing you could say no to- not without losing face- so he did. Or he tried to. Standing behind the Krogan at the bar Chom nearly had the pistol out of the holster when his finger slipped and the gun to fall heavily back into the holster, alerting the Krogan to his presence. Chom jolted but not fast enough. The Krogan grabbed him by the collar and threw him onto the bar, holding him down by his throat. The certainty Chom felt in his own approaching death as he looked into the beady eyes of the Krogan left no room for any other thought or emotion, not even fear.

"You've got a quad on you to come up and try to steal my pistol when I've got my whole team here in this bar," growled the Krogan

Chom was silent, unable to locate in his mind even the words of a plea for his life. The Krogan burst out in laughter.

"And you won't even beg for your life like the rest of these rats. I like that kid. You're Blood Pack material."

And so Chom came to find himself taking a last look down at the planet through the dirty window of a merc transport. He held two fingers a centimeter apart in font of his eye. Everything he had ever known could fit between them now.

"You first time offworld?" hissed a grizzled veteran sitting near him. Chom stared at him a moment and then nodded.

"If you get through training it not so bad," he said with a laugh that turned into a hacking cough.

"Blood Pack pay good- food, females, place to sleep. All you got to worry about are shepards," He said, his face turning serious. Chom bit.

"Shepards?" He asked.

"Shepards," Hissed the veteran disdainfully, "No good meddlers. Go sticking noses into not-their-business. Vorcha try to make honest living- merc, smuggler, red sand- not doing no harm to no one- not doing no harm to shepards but they no can leave alone. Alliance, C-Sec, hu-mans, turians, asari- all shepards," he spat.

Chom looked back out the window. The planet had disappeared from view completely. He'd rarely seen any stars through the city lights and smog but now dozens flitted by his window every moment. It made him feel dizzy so he turned back to the veteran. He looked old. Maybe even 16 or 17. Chom though of what he had had said about shepards and fiddled nervously with the gun in his lap. He had assured the Krogan he knew how to use it, though in reality working guns had always been rather about his pay grade as an urchin.

"Vorcha beat them, right?" Chom asked finally,

"Ehh?" The veteran cocked his head

"Shepards- Vorcha kill them, take guns?"

The veteran shook his head.

"Shepard come, Vorcha leave if you want to live. I hear story, before first shepard Vorcha live all over, control Omega, then shepard human come, kill Vorcha, make them leave."

He shook his head again.

"Have to be careful, careful now. Vorcha home world," he spat on the floor in disgust again, "No can live on, not enough food. Omega, space station, shepard cities, they no want us- they say 'We no want merc, we no want red sand.' but Vorca no can be scientist, no can work at store." he said with a derisive laugh, "No, Blood Pack only place for Vorcha. It good you join. You watch your back, you no bother shepard and it a good life."

Chom pressed his nose to the window. When he looked out he could no longer see stars, only streaks of light. Once he's been sent by the gang to another settlement. That was far away, two days there and two days back on foot. The Krogan had said they would be in the ship for at least twice that long and if each of these specks they passed were as big as his planet...

He looked away from the window again. The thought made his head hurt. There had to be a way for things to make sense again. His mind turned over the veteran's words.

"You say there was first shepard?" He asked,

"Yes, human leader. Now its pack even bigger than Blood Pack."

"I kill shepards, I take their guns, I make new pack."

Chom wasn't sure where the words had come from but once he had said them he liked the sound of them. The veteran laughed his raspy laugh,

"Good luck kid, I like to see it."

The more the Chom turned the idea over in his head the more he liked it, if one human could start a pack- why couldn't he? He'd never seen a real human but he'd seen them in vids and they didn't look so tough- all soft fleshy skin and funny looking stumpy legs. True, the universe seemed huge and terrifying now but so had the city when he'd first left the house. The though comforted him. He had a plan now a goal. With new-found boldness he turned back to the veteran.

"Old man you teach me, how you use gun?"


	11. Elcor

"Quizitively; who can tell me about the passage you read last night from the Shepard Cycle?"

Professor Hubron surveyed the classroom,

"Perturbed question; anyone besides Weylin?"

No hands were added to the Salarian's waving one. Typical. Weylin was the only student who volunteered information on a regular basis. He had heard that the rest of the council races sometimes considered that the Elcor hard to read or taciturn. Hubron did not think that they would call Elcors the quiet ones after observing his class though- forty-five minutes three days of week Professor Hubron trying to drag the slightest sliver of information out of any of his students. Usually without success.

"With growing impatience; you did do the reading, didn't you?"

Except the Salarian his entire sixth period galactic literature class appeared to have suddenly become fascinated with reading the contents of their notepads, fidgeting with their omni-tools or doing anything they could to avoid his line of sight. Hubron bowed to the inevitable.

"With resignation; yes Weylin."

Weylin drew himself up in his seat importantly,

"Shepard meet with the seer, Shi'ira who told him that he had to pass three trials to get into the underworld where the Reapers dwelt. First he had to perform the twelve labors posed by his comrades. Second, he had to learn the answer to the riddle posed by Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guarded the entrance to the Omaga Four relay. Finally he had to collect the three palladium apples that would make his ship impervious to attack."

"Insincere complement; very good Weylin. Unannounced question; Elban, did you notice anything interesting about this passage?"

Professor Huson was the only one in the classroom who could truly appreciate the fear and surprise in the young Elcor's eyes.

"With barely constrained terror; interesting?"

"With a great feeling of schadenfreude; yes."

"Uncertainly; there were motifs?"

"Wryly, such as?"

There was a long pause,

"Clasping at straws; water?"

The human girl next to him flicking through something on her omni-tool snorted derisively.

"With slightly sadistic pleasure; Miss Watson, perhaps you have something to add?"

The girl blinked in surprise

"I- I don't know. I don't think there even was any water in the last book. I did think that it was pretty terrible of Shepard to leave Liara behind to weave that 'Shawl of lies' all by herself on a space station while he went off on the rest of his quest banging seers or krogan princesses or whatever."

The boy next to her looked up in surprise.

"He was banging krogan princesses? What book was that in?"

"Archly; Perhaps if you kept up on your reading Mr. Tait you would be aware of these more; Suggestively; interesting passages. With morbid curiosity; Perhaps you could share you could share your thoughts on what you've read so far with the class."

"Uhh, sure, I guess," Daniel Tait said. He ran his hand through his hair, and looked up intently, as if the answers he was searching for were written on the upper part of the wall if he could only read them.

"Shepard's like- he's a bro, you know?" He said in a tone that was initially hesitant but seemed to become more confidant as he went along. "He's just like out there, with his bros, killing Rachni and doing what he has to do to get back to earth or Liara or his house or something."

"With mocking incredulity; Shepard and the companions are all bros. That is a unique interpretation, perhaps you should write a scholarly paper about it for publication."

"Uh, yeah. Maybe." Danial said, the sarcasm sailing right over his head, Elcor verbalized inflection or no. This was more than Weylin could stand and he shot back at Daniel without raining his hand.

"He's hardly much of 'brother' though to the rest of the comrades. He traded the palladium apples for a potion that would get rid of his scars and make him more attractive to women. Then he refused to complete the tasks posed by his comrades so they all died in the battle against the Reapers. He was the only one to make it back to earth in the end."

Daniel's eyes were wide.

"Hey- spoilers! We haven't been assigned those books yet."

Weylin rolled his eyes.

"You can't have spoilers on two thousand year old epic poetry."

The klaxon of the school bell came and the class seemed to breathe a sigh of relief as one, hurriedly rising to their feet and shoving notepads into bags.

"With great annoyance; I dismiss you, not the bell."

A/N Geth, Turian and Human chapters are coming along. Maybe keepers. No promises.


End file.
